


Destroyer of Souls

by akgerhardt



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Euthanasia/Mercy Killing, Supernatural Being, Your author also has a painfully obvious fetish-slash-coping mechanism, Your author is very tired and fantasizes about dying so please use discretion, and hyperfocuses when the Existential Despair kicks in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 02:16:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19075441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akgerhardt/pseuds/akgerhardt
Summary: Life itself exists in a state of impermanence- everything is always changing.





	Destroyer of Souls

He was not responsible for giving them life- no theoretical deity has that power. Life is its own determinant, consciousness as well. From their first breath to their last, humans maintain a concept of self. The one constant of the world is him- omniscent, dreaded, incomprehensible, obscured, unreachable, and still inevitable. He is always "there" at their final moments, not unlike the grim reaper. However, there is no destination to guide them to, no meeting a creator, no set of laws to be observed. It's just him and them. 

He is a neutral force, arguably benevolent in an anthropomorphic light. He gathers their energy, takes it into himself, and cycles it back into the "circle of life," so to speak. Just as energy cannot truly be created or destroyed, he exists to rearrange it. 

For some people, there is no awareness of impending death. Others are lost in sheer emotion and final thoughts. Rare is the person who can enter it with a clear mind, even rarer the person who has lived without regrets. 

The universe is callous and unfeeling, filled with entropy. That does not mean he must be, though. While he cannot cause or prevent a loss of life, he can change how it is experienced. Those who he shows compassion to come closest to reaching a concept of Heaven before their last brain activity ends.

Today, intolerable heat and cold clash in the most violent of confrontations, and he collects the casualties. 

He sifts through their memories, seeking out those individuals who weren't totally horrible and whose time and/or manner of deaths would be unjust in relative terms. They're his priority. 

Drawing each close, he encompasses them with a sense of peace, coaxing them into the greatest comfort and joy they can manage and fulfilling their imaginative dreams. This isn't entirely selfless- when they're happy and willing, it's much easier for him to stomach. Fear, grief, and suffering don't sit well.

With each encounter comes another addition to his essence, neither positive nor negative let alone physical. He doesn't require energy to process, just them. He brings the unavoidable in the same way that wind carries oxygen- every organic being must die sooner or later; he just makes it a more pleasant ordeal through his sentience. 

Those who were more neutral than anything are simply lulled into one last rest. However, the people who were undeniably bastards get their "just desserts" in a moment that seems to span for eternity and might as well be their custom-made Hell. He's adept at altering perception, to say the least. 

He can't predict the future, though. Some of them are brought back from the brink, yanked out of him. It’s a bit... jarring of an experience for both parties, even those simply experiencing an "eternal sleep."

Still, he's not human, and to ascribe their emotions and intellect to his psyche would be illogical, a pipe dream and consolation, many argue. No one actually _knows_ that he exists, though. No one knows anything except that he's the polar opposite of life. He has no consistent attributes with which to base an understanding of him, let alone a physical image. He thinks humans are ridiculous with their bullshit religions and pretty much everything else. He'd rather work exclusively with other organic beings- dogs, for example. He undeniably enjoys making every single one's last moments happy. He can't be accused of lingering in shelters and abusive homes if he's omnipresent, so the other "gods" can just fuck right off with their insinuations of him being a softie. He embodies death, and there's nothing warm or fuzzy about that. 

The lack of fairness and sense to life does make him sad in a traditional way, but an astral deity isn't capable of getting depressed. He probably just spends too much time and energy on that dying planet, and anyone in his nonexistent shoes would be inclined to learn their traits and empathy, maybe even mimic them. That's the explanation he's sticking with. 

He might have been human once. He's entertained the notion, as have some of his companions. Maybe the multiverse theory  _is_ true, but not even they know. No one does.


End file.
